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In This Issue

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Over a Barrel Niagara Falls forms the backdrop to this summer’s most rewarding and whimsical comedy

Noble Cause The Nobility ascend the local ranks with their latest

Roots of the Tomahawk Tomahawk’s third record gets tribal

Swamp Anatomy Tony Joe White on AC/DC, the beauty of a good drum loop and how to get a crowd dancing in two feet of water

Awash With Personality Landmark East Side pub gets a menu makeover

You Are So Nashville If... Past Winners

You Are So Nashville If... Weirdies

 

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It was good and chill and just hangin’ out and drinkin’ beers

Thursday night’s show at the Family Wash was shaping up to be the perfect East Nashville evening: live music, mind-blowing shepherd’s pie and high-alcohol-content beers knocking us on our ass without us even knowing it. Wash staples Hands Down Eugene were sharing the bill with Umbrella Tree, who brought a sizable cross-river contingent to the cozy pub. Umbrella Tree were doing the first of two gigs over three days—this one was of an acoustic rendering of their first album How Many Books Do You Read? The trio have quite a varied fan base—young people mouthing along to the words, parents with kids in tow (quite the progressive bedtime in our estimation—we remember begging to stay up till 9 p.m. for 90210) and indie-rock club rats. The show was tight, mellow and pretty—and it was actually a nice twist to know which song was coming next. Co-singer Jillian Leigh might just have the prettiest voice in town outside of the whole girl-with-a-guitar-and-a-whole-lot-of-feelings thing. Its sweetness is casually subversive, especially paired with her coy grin. Next up were Hands Down Eugene, who trotted out some new material and some old staples. Some standout tracks from 2006’s Madison were the highlights—we don’t think we’ll ever get tired of the lilting psychedelia of “Full Blast,” and the tender invitation to “Sleep over if you’re too drunk, baby” from “Miss Madison” never leaves us without a smile. But, come to think of it, with the excellent tunes and the 10 percent alcohol in our beverage, we weren’t really wanting for a smile.

This one time at band camp

The Southern Girls Rock ’n’ Roll Camp has taken one week in each of the past four summers to teach young girls the science and art of rocking. Now in its fifth year, the Murfreesboro outfit has expanded to include a weeklong Memphis camp also. This year, 67 campers from ages 10 to 17 participated in beginning to advanced classes for guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and vocals, along with photography and zine-building workshops. Camp founder Kelley Anderson’s traditional country folk band Those Darlins, Nashville punks Six Gun Lullaby, Atlanta’s My Siamese Self and jazz vocalist Rachel Pearl were this year’s guest panelists and performers. On the first day of camp each year, the campers form their own bands, then spend two hours a day practicing a song of their choosing to perform at the showcase. The fifth annual SGRRC Showcase, concluding Saturday, featured 16 bands with names such as Rage Against the Mom-Chine, Happy Doomsday and Bailamos y Cantamos. While the showcase didn’t attract as large a crowd as it has in the past, the bands were some of SGRRC’s most accomplished to date. A number of the girls have been attending the camp for all five years, and each was recognized by camp director Liz Estes and “Pepper Walker,” the Alabama used car salesman alter ego of Glossary’s Todd Beene. Of the 16 bands, seven opted to pen their own songs for the showcase, ranging from the SGGRC homage “Rawk!!! Camp” to the ironically sing-along-able “http://www.internetaddiction.co.fr/~roti_hungryangry.html.” (The address doesn’t actually work—we checked.) Not that the covers weren’t great as well: Traffik Jam took the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” back to the garage, while Bassist Wanted had the guts to cover “Just What I Needed” by the Cars, even while short an instrument or two, chief among them, bass. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, White Stripes, Ramones and Stevie Nicks got some play during the showcase as well. Not only did these girls have the courage to stand on stage in bands they had formed that week and perform in front of 200 people, they weren’t afraid to bring it. It was a fun evening, and band after band demanded that the crowd stand, one even tossing T-shirts into the audience. As Pepper Walker noted, it’s never too soon to start thinking about band merchandise.

Send pictures of tinycute awesome things to thespin@nashvillescene.com.